While lauding the Bengal team for their record smashing performance in the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals in Bangalore, CAB President Avishek Dalmiya urged the team to now focus on the semifinals and start preparing for that.
Dalmiya flew to Bangalore to be with the team in their winning moments. While lauding the team he said: "The record is a thing in the past already. Now the team should shift gears and start preparing for the semi finals which would be much tougher. There is no place to be complacent. We have to keep our focus on the next match. Winning Ranji Trophy is the final marker for the team and we should not forget that."
While congratulating the team, he said he expected nothing less than excellence from this very talented side.
"I was here to show that the association was with their players and everyone was very proud of their world record setting performance. But at the same time we reminded them that Madhya Pradesh was a tough side and playing well and Bengal needed to keep playing at the very top level to beat them. We asked the players not to be over confident but at the same time not forget that they are one of the better sides and Final was just a match away," he added.
Avishek also praised Manoj Tiwari for his performance. "Manoj is one of the finest cricketers from Bengal. And the way he played even in the first innings showed he was determined to reinvent himself. He played two crucial knocks and we are very happy that he has found his scoring bat at the right time. We need him to score in the middle for us to do well," he added.
Seamlessly juggling politics and cricket, Manoj Tiwary on Friday achieved what no one else did in 88 years of Ranji Trophy: score a hundred while being a sitting minister in a state government.
Without an iota of doubt, Tiwary's 136 was the highlight of an inconsequential fifth day's play as Bengal advanced to the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy on the basis of their massive first-innings lead.
In between signing files related to his constituency, Tiwary, a sitting minister of sports and youth affairs in the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, struck 19 fours and two sixes.
The 36-year-old veteran also scored 73 in Bengal's first essay.
